Page:Soldier poets, songs of the fighting men, 1916.djvu/54

 DYNELEY HUSSEY

Youth

LITTLE flower,

That yet dost not disclose

The secrets which thy closed bud scarce knows,

I blow upon thy petals that thine hour

Be hastened, the awakening to thy power.

Short is the time,

O flower, and full of storms;

The summer sky is dark with warlike forms

Of battling rains, and thunder-clouds that climb

Laden with danger up the blue sublime.

The night-born dew

Shall, on thy lip, be wine;

The worship of the wide stars shall be thine;

And the vast, mottled Heaven to thy view

Shall spread its cloak of cloud and changeless blue;

And thou shalt hear

Of birds sweet poetry,

And deep-droned wisdom from the noonday bee;

And gaudy butterflies shall flutter near

To whisper gallant secrets in thine ear.

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